Data Architecture Lead

Purpose

• As a Solution Architect – Microsoft Fabric, you will be part of Data Architecture and play a central role within the Data & Information Management function, owning the definition and delivery of the enterprise data and analytics platform on the Microsoft stack. You will work in close partnership with Enterprise Architecture to ensure alignment with overall IT strategy, while taking the lead for the implementation and scale-up of Microsoft Fabric as SBM’s next-generation Enterprise Data Platform.
• Building on the current Proof of Concept, you will drive the migration from Azure Synapse to Microsoft Fabric, shaping the target architecture, defining implementation patterns, and ensuring a smooth transition into a production-grade, enterprise-wide platform. You will carry this vision forward, ensuring Fabric is not only implemented but continuously optimised and adopted as a core business capability.
• You will collaborate closely with Data Engineers, Data Architects, and the wider IT&S organisation to refine and enhance the platform architecture, performance, governance and operating model. In parallel, you will engage directly with business stakeholders to successfully deliver high-value use cases on Microsoft Fabric, ensuring solutions are practical, scalable and aligned with long-term business needs.
• This role requires a proactive, solution-oriented mindset, with a strong focus on collaboration and long-term value for SBM. While not a formal people manager, you will provide technical leadership across internal teams and external vendors, ensuring architectural consistency, delivery quality and alignment with defined objectives. You will be expected to guide delivery, challenge approaches where needed, and actively steer decisions towards the best long-term outcome for the organisation.

Responsibilities

• Work hand-in-hand with Enterprise Architecture and internal Data & Information Management teams on the target solution architecture for the enterprise analytics platform on the Microsoft stack, with particular focus on Microsoft Fabric and its integration with the wider Azure and Microsoft ecosystem. Lead the activities from Data Management side.
• Architect and guide implementation across key Fabric capabilities, including OneLake, Lakehouse, Data Warehouse, Data Factory/Pipelines, Power BI, Real-Time Intelligence and Microsoft Purview.
• Lead end-to-end Fabric implementations, including architecture design, environment setup, deployment approach, governance model and handover into steady-state operations.
• Define architecture patterns and decision frameworks for lakehouse vs warehouse, medallion architecture, semantic models and serving patterns, including Direct Lake where appropriate.
• Design deployment structures across capacities, domains, workspaces and environments, balancing governance, security, performance isolation and cost.
• Define and guide lifecycle management practices (versioning, deployment, environment promotion) aligned with enterprise standards.
• Together with Data Governance ensure data solutions are governed and secure by design, including sensitivity labels, lineage, metadata management and Purview-enabled governance.
• Proactively drive performance, resilience and cost optimisation across the Fabric platform, including workload behaviour, capacity usage and architectural efficiency.
• Work closely with business stakeholders, product owners, engineering teams and platform teams to translate business priorities into practical architectural roadmaps and implementation plans. Solution architects in Microsoft’s own role framework are expected to advise stakeholders and translate business requirements into well-architected designs.
• Be part of Data Architecture Team.
• Provide technical leadership to delivery teams and serve as the senior point of guidance for complex implementation issues, trade-off decisions and architectural risks especially related to MS Fabric.
• Communicate architecture, business value, constraints and adoption implications clearly to senior leadership and non-technical stakeholders. 

Education

• Bachelor’s (or higher) degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering or related field.
• Preferred certifications: Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate, Microsoft Certified: Fabric Data Engineer Associate, Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert.

Experience

• Minimum 8–10 years of experience in solution architecture, data platform architecture, data engineering or related roles, including significant delivery experience in cloud data platforms.
• Proven experience leading Microsoft Fabric or closely related Microsoft data platform implementations in enterprise contexts, including architecture ownership from design through deployment and adoption.
• Strong experience designing solutions across OneLake, Lakehouse, Data Warehouse, pipelines/data integration, semantic models and BI consumption patterns.
• Strong understanding of Fabric governance, including Purview integration, lineage, sensitivity labels and secure data access.
• Practical experience with Git integration, deployment pipelines and CI/CD in Fabric or equivalent Microsoft analytics environments.
• Experience addressing real implementation challenges such as migration decisions, environment promotion, performance bottlenecks, capacity constraints, governance trade-offs and stakeholder adoption.
• Strong technical grounding in SQL, with working knowledge of PySpark, KQL, and where relevant DAX / semantic modelling.
• Demonstrated ability to operate as a bridge between business and technology, articulating complex architecture decisions in clear business language.

Functional Competencies